Routine Ramblings of an Occasionally Interesting Texan

July 7th, 2002

Friday we shopped and lunched and shopped and napped and dinnered and talked and gamed and slept. In between barking.

At the church yard sale, I found four paperback books that were in good condition that I haven't read, but look interesting. Leave it to me to promptly forgot all four books -- I think one was a book by Dean Koontz, maybe Watchers.

We went to Claire's, but I didn't see any nifty rainbow hairbands with teeth. My supply of rainbow stuff appears to be waning. I did find a barrett e thingy that I want to try out in Sydb's hair. I still haven't gotten around to braiding her hair.

We went to Dee's again, and I bought an adhesive product that I'm hoping will work kind of like cod hot-glue, if that makes any sense. I also got some l etter forms to use for lettering plaster casts before they're dry. I'm planning to use them to add lettering to cookies and toast and stuff.

In the afternoon, I finally got around to making a userpic for the summer. I don't actually eat all that much watermelon, but it's such a perfect symbol of this hot summer...

Friday night we joined Sydb's family for dinner at Piccadilly's, and then went to her grandparents' condo for ic ecream, conversation and game playing. One of her cousins plays the guitar well enough to be a welcome addition to the evening -- he picked out the beginning of Stairway to Heaven and then some of Eidelweiss, both on request. I really like accustic guit ar music.

We played Knights, and I had terrifically lucky dice rolls. Depending on the order of the deck, lucky rolls kind of steamroll, as you can win cards that add virtual dice, essentially.

Today was more of a lazy Saturday, we kind of took shift s napping.

Starting the night of the 4th, Flood has decided she doesn't want to sleep in her crate, and whines or barks until she's let out. I tried for a full two hours last night, but she never let up for more than a minute or so, so I finally gave up on the crate. After that, she woke up a few more times just to bark.

Which explains the need for extended napping today.

Tonight's strategy is: I'll go out and sit with her anytime Wolf or Sydb nudge me, but not if I just came back to bed.

Wolf is still enjoying cooking from the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, so we've been having yummy meals. Pancakes and scrambled eggs this morning, bean burritos with spanish rice and queso for lunch, and then assorted snacking for dinner. I had a fried egg sandwich and some of the watermelon. Wolf is awesome at thumping watermelons -- this one was deep red when we cut into it, but a little softer than Sydb is used to... Probably because we took a few days before we got around to cutting into it.

We pl ayed some Knights, and my luck totally sucked this afternoon. I did manage to win the last of three games.

We also watched Moulin Rouge. I was pleased to share the movie with them, it is such a strangely unique movie. Wolf particularly liked the silly love songs duet and the way I vibrato when I'm doing a "Sleepless in Seattle" review of the end of the movie. He also located the origin of the opening song for me, which I incorrectly thought was original to the movie. Tomorrow's project: figure which songs were original, and where all the other ones came from.

In the late afternoon, Wolf came out and helped me play with Flood. I was working on her obedience class homework, but she really enjoyed playing, afterwords. She can hold a "watch" for as long as I'm interested, sits immediately for a treat, and often for just praise, held a "stand" for over 10 seconds, and a "sit-stay" for more than 5. I need to call the instructor to find out what to do about her wanting to bound and jump on heel, thoug h.

Flood loves chasing. Chasing people, chasing balls, jumping for the frog, mouthing it to make it squeak and sigh. She also got lots of just plain petting and cuddle time. I'm *really* hoping she'll sleep more tonight.

We played Facts in Five toni ght, and I particularly rocked at remembering Books of the New Testament. But Wolf beat both Sydb and I by an impressive 100 points or so. We don't understand why he doesn't like the game.

We also tried out Sequence, but it didn't seem to have as much strategy to it as Split did. We only played one round.